Introduction

Hello and welcome to my Pantheon guide :). I would like to thank everyone for supporting this guide and for helping me improve myself over the last year.

This guide is a bit old. Actually, it was my first one. So I will do my best to remake it into today's situations, and try to give you a good and effective way to play with Pantheon.

The old builds where originally created a year ago, but I still update and change them if needed as the game evolves. Back then anti-carry characters and assassins had a more important role in team compositions. Still, those builds are extremely fun to use and play.NOTE:The game always develops around your decisions and actions. This is a guideline on how to play Pantheon and it cannot be precise enough for every single match. The outcome is on your hands.

-Come back with your shield,or on it-

Pros/Cons

As any character in the League, Pantheon has some very strong advantages but also some annoying disadvantages. Knowing Pantheon's weaknesses and strengths is a very important part for understanding his game philosophy.

Cons

Masteries

As a Pantheon player I've tried a lot of possible mastery combinations. What I usually aim for is a balance of damage and durability, and trying to enhance my characters strengths while minimizing his weaknesses.

Vampirism : The lifesteal a Doran's Blade provide for free. It also stacks nicely with the other lifesteal items you get later on. These three points can be used for Havoc instead. This is up to preference.

Greater Mark of Attack Damage: These are viable if you want to take even more advantage of Pantheon's early game damage, but they fall very quickly and your spear shot tickles if your enemy invest on early game armor.

Seals

Greater Seal of Replenishment

Greater Seal of Vitality

Greater Seal of Armor: By far the best choice for seals in my opinion. The extra armor early on is a great asset for winning your lane and withstand early pokes.

This is your most powerful spell. If maxed first it can devastate your target. Combine it withfor better results. If the enemy team does not have many stuns or interrups this is the way to go.

Grand Skyfall
Pantheon gathers his strength channeling for 2 seconds and then leaps high in to the air, crashing down at the target area 1.5 seconds later. Deals 400 / 700 / 1000 (+100% of ability power) magic damage to units at the center (down to 50% at the edge) and slows them by 35% for 1 second. If the channeling is cancelled, the cooldown is reduced to 10 seconds. Ignores spell immunity buffs (like Morgana's Black Shield).

Your personal damaging Teleport. It can provide many kills early game if used properly. Always keep in mind that it needs 3.5 seconds for you to jump in the selected location. Its easy to fail with that spell and takes time and practice to master. But its really enjoyable coming out of nowhere.

So I've been thinking and trying to find out which skills worth leveling up first. Lets take a short look.

MAXIMUM DAMAGE:>>>
With this lvlup orderPantheon deals the maximum damage he can pull out with a full combo. A fully landed HSS hurts more than anything else early game.Cons:
-Your harasment is weak.
-Duo lanes with hard cc wont let you cast HSS.
-If yourgets interrupted your damage fades dramaticaly.
-Requires more mana as it is dependant from

BALANCED>=>
With this lvlup setup you deal considerable amounts of damage with both of your main damaging spells. But it deals less overall damage. I personaly find myself not using this setup very much. I prefer to max either one or the other.Cons:
-Both of your abilities will deal less damage than they are supposed to.

SPEARSHOOTER>>>
Recently this is my favorite way. Your Spear Shot HURTS. I am able to outharass most champions. Also it helps more when tower diving because its a single target, auto-lock spell and therefore it reduces your time under the turret. You can also killsteal with ease^^(dont do it though).Cons:
-Less overall damage.

So which way is best? I would suggest maxing Spear Shot first because its a more reliable spell compared to Heartseeker Strike and it benefits much greatly from spell ranks.
Yet again, the other two ways are viable as well. But it depends on the enemy setup and the abilities(and sometimes the skill)of your team.
I believe that you should try all different methods and see which works better for your playstyle and game philosophy.

Basic playstyle

The ideal and usual rotation I use is:++++

Although everything changes depending on the enemy character and the situation at hand.

TIPS

Don't charge around with Aegis of Zeonia without thinking first.
Positioning is key. The target you will stun must put you in an advantage and not cut you off from your team or leave you vulnerable.
Target priority:1)Enemy opposing immidiate threat to your carry.2)Enemy carry.3)Chaneling opponents(,).4)Position for Heartseeker(stun the first-HSS on enemy team).
These of course are hypothetical situations.

Learn to Aim your Heartseeker Strikewithought using your Aegis of Zeonia. This is very helpful because your Heartseeker cools much faster. Also there are some cases when this will be needed.
Do this when:
1)Enemy walks away from you in melee distance.
2)Opponent almost reaches melee range.
3)Ally immobilises-uses cc on your target(stun,snare etc).
Use your Heartseeker Strike like this when you need to conserve your Aegis of Zeonia for the next seconds(waiting for an important enemy to enter the fray). Or you want your opponent to use an escape mechanism first().

On team fights don't always charge inside the heat. Because for example if Amumu stuns the enemy team prefer to use Heartseeker Strike from distance while they are stunned and then charge in if needed. In this way you avoid much of the danger and still be able to land a deadly HSS on several players.Every situation is different and you must use your judgement on every one of those situations :).

Using Pantheons ultimate(Grand Skyfall)

So you check out Pantheons ultimate:.
Pantheons ultimate is basically a ranged Teleport.
It can be use for:

-Defending distant turrets.
-Placing yourself correctly into battle.
-Assisting in distant fights.
-Kill people who recall back and feel safe inside their turrets(sort of my favorite^^).

Total cast time is 3.5 seconds. Keep that in mind every time you aim your

Placing yourcorrectly:1st. First of all judge how many seconds will your enemies stay in the area you want to Skyfall. For example if they just reach the lane and start farming creeps they will stay much longer instead of when the creeps are dying and the target gets lost in the fog of war.

2nd. See what enemy you are about to ulty on.
For example a can easely run through your whole Skyfall with Move Quick.can throw you immediately back right after you jump which will screw up your gang(not to mention you will need so much time to kill him that by then more 2-3 people would have jumped on you).
Alsowill just jump outside of your Skyfall's circle(and even come back around and attempt to kill you if fed)..etc
Be be aware of your enemies summoner spells and skills!!!.

3rd. Coordinate with your team mates!. A stun from your ally inside your Grand Skyfall can make the difference between an successful move,or an epic fail. The closer to the center the better. So if for example your teammate attacks from the front you should Skyfall in the back of the fight or close escape routes. Depending on where and how the fight develops you must use your judgement. Also don't forget that now Pantheon's ultimate has
limited range which means that you might need to run some distance to place it correctly.

So, to make a summary.
Most of the time you will place yourslightly behind your enemies. Not in front but not a km behind them either. Judging on the current situations try to dominate the map as much as possible by being in as many places as possible. Have map awareness and good team communication.

Early game

Prefer going on the side lanes as you can dominate more easely. Pantheon is a great early game character so try to take advantage of it, harass opponents when you see opportunities opening for a++combo and lasthit minions easely with your passive(from HS skill). Always focus on the weakest target and don't waste spells on characters that can either regenerate the amount of health lost very fast or can lifesteal it back(like or ). Using your spells when the time is right is crucial if you don't want to sacrifice a summoner spell for Clarity or for mp5 runes. When you hit lvl 6 be aware of the fight in midle lane. You might need to position yourself closer since can't reach mid from bot anymore. If the enemy has overextended towards your turrent warn you friend with a ping and jump on your opponent by using the classic W+E+Q combo and hopefully get a kill or an assist. On the other hand if you have advantage in your lane you can hide in the bushes, coordinate with your lanemate and land withbehind your emenies and confuse them. Focus the squishiest target for better results. Kill and farm as much as you can before going back to base. By that time you should be able to take at least aand. If you are extremely fed you can pick upinstead. The damage boost is enormous.

Mid game

Youris ready and you might already have your 1st. Always wait for the perfect chance to charge inside the battle,this is where you must use yourspell wisely. Wait for a fight to begin and as soon as the first round of cc spells are used pop up ghost-charge-stun an oponent that will allow you to hit more than one character with(as many as possible)-finish the combo and if the situation looks bad disengage otherwise finish off the remaning chars by keeping them in range of yourand wait for ability to cool or if they are on low health finish them with a few quick. When you have yourready farm inside jungle between fights to fill up the stacks because +40 dmg is not easy to ignore.After you finish your rush the.

Late Game

The most difficult part to play with Pantheon. Usually the oposite team will have huge amounts of aoe damage and if you dont play carefully you will end up seeing things black and white...Making yourwill help a lot in killing people who have more hp than before. You should be very carefull on the way you will gang people because noone goes alone anymore and they probably will be expecting you to appear. Try to take advantage of your high burst damage and assault the fragile targets as they are busy on killing your friends. NEVER charge first inside or alone!,you wont be able to help much if you are dead. Try to ensure that yourwill not get interrupted and avoid heavy aoe damage interrupting spells(like blizz and amumu's ulty). is one of the most fragile late game chars and you have to understand the nature of this problem. Now you are ready to build your. This will make you shred people with 1k crits. You will be surprized on how well is synegizes with the overall build. You are now a damaging beast. Still you have to judge the situation right when engaging.

Dominating with Pantheon(Dominion)

Pantheon is a very effective character for Dominion. Exelent for defending and getting fast where needed made me easely win 80% of my games in this map.

Greater Mark of DesolationGreater Mark of Desolation.Armor penetraton scales extremely well during the whole game. Combine this with your items and dont be afraid of engaging any kind of enemy.
Greater Seal of DefenseGreater Seal of Defense.We want to enhance our effective health and make us able to take more punishment, and live to tell about it. These seals help greatly towards this goal. I prefer Armor/lvl because in Dominion you level up very fast, making flat runes a worse pick.Greater Glyph of Shielding.Again, the more resistances the better. Although, sometimes I change for Cdr/lvl so I can useGrand Skyfall faster.
Greater Quintessence of DesolationGreater Quintessence of Desolation.Important for cutting opponents down. Pantheon's kit needs a good portion of Arp, he just can't have enough.

For Dominion mobility is very important. For my playstyle I use:Exhaust.A spell we are all familiar with. It can give you an edge in fights you thought where lost. It has many uses and adds another CC to your arsenal.Ghost.Although some Summoners might disagree about this, I find Ghost to be superior to Flash for Dominion. Great for going fast to a capture point or throw the last spear to the enemy who just flashed. In this map you can't pull the tricks you can do in Summoner's Rift. Its more about overal mobility, witch Ghost gives plenty of it.Flash.Probably the best Summoner Spell of the game. Savior of the universe etc etc. This spell has countless uses. But it doesnt fit my playstyle for Dominion. But its a great alternative to. Swap if you just can't live withought it.

For Masteries I use a setup that might look a bit wierd, but they worked nicely so far. I might update or change them if needed as I get more experience with the new mastery tree.
My masteries focus on a more offensive approach.
Some brief explanation in things that you might not be sure about:Sorcery.A nice boost to our cooldown reduction. The more you can use your the better.Vampirism.Although this Mastery is not a must, it does help sustaining yourself between fights.But these points can be spent elsewhere if needed.Good Hands.Every second in Dominion counts.`This Mastery is almost a must here. You must be alive and kicking as fast as possible.

Probably the most important part of this chapter.
Pick 2x+. This will allow a very early and therefore trustworthy damage.
As soon as the battle starts head for Windmill with your team mates. Harass them and try to conserve your Hp and Mp for the real thing. If you see your allies ready and willing mark your target. You will target according to 1)Threat, 2)Positioning. Stun and give time to your team to either kill, or severly damage the enemy. Its not necesary to kill. You just want them off your ground. Aim for capturing the important locations, not for kills.
All the time run and use the Regeneretion points. Thats what will keep you rolling.

If you managed to capture the Windmill succesfuly, aim for having 3 bases and be able to defend them. I usually stay there and defend. From this area you have an easy access to all the capture points with your and assisting your team.
But i suggest doing what you think will be more beneficial for the team.

So these are some basics for playing in Dominion. I will add more things as they come along.

I also persent you a tautorial video, created by Deot(Raibar 9). Realy thankfull that he used my build as a base for the video :)

Possible builds

Pantheon can be build in many ways. And in general you shouldn't be narrow minded when building your character. In this chapter I will demonstrate a series of builds that have worked for me and I hope they will prove useful for you as well.

Old/Agressive

Item Sequence

Boots of Speed300

Doran's Blade450

The Brutalizer1337

Mercury's Treads1100

B. F. Sword1300

The Bloodthirster3700

Phage1250

Youmuu's Ghostblade2900

Frozen Mallet3100

B. F. Sword1300

Infinity Edge3600

Chain Vest800

Guardian Angel2400

My favorite build for AD Pantheon. The way the one item fits the other is just amazing. Although is not as viable as it was in the past it still puts a smile on my face every time I use it. Defenetly not reccomended for ranked games but extreme fun to use in normal. Its proves the awesomeness of the old Pantheon and its glory.

Frosty Warrior

Item Sequence

Health Potion50

Health Potion50

Health Potion50

Doran's Blade450

Doran's Blade450

The Brutalizer1337

Berserker's Greaves1100

Phage1250

Youmuu's Ghostblade2900

Frozen Mallet3100

Chain Vest800

Atma's Impaler2300

B. F. Sword1300

Infinity Edge3600

Negatron Cloak720

Banshee's Veil2450

I was using this build in ranked games in season one, now I mostly go with it on normal. The combination of early tankyness and the fast Frozen Mallet helps greatly tagging enemies for your team. A very solid and trustworthy build overall.

The power of this build is unmatched. You have a load of attack damage to kill the enemy carries as well as defences to withstand a lot of focus fire. With this build Pantheon returns to his former glory and he is more able to determinant the outcome of the game.

The Destroyer

Item Sequence

Health Potion50

Health Potion50

Health Potion50

Doran's Blade450

Doran's Blade450

The Brutalizer1337

Berserker's Greaves1100

Phage1250

Youmuu's Ghostblade2900

Pickaxe875

Last Whisper1300

Trinity Force3733

Chain Vest800

Guardian Angel2400

B. F. Sword1300

Infinity Edge3600

Probably one of the most fun to play build I've used so far. The bursting capability against any type of character makes this build a true destroyer. Still, you should jump later inside the fight and try to avoid crowd control effects. You must have perfect positioning to utilize its full power. A high risk high reward build.

End

Thanks for reading my guide,please feel free to comment-always trying to improve!Game result
Result achieved by ImNotBlonde.
Also check this awsome video!. Nunu bot ftw!!! (Ashrender Playing Pantheon).

Last Updates/Change log and thoughts

31/05/12
Wow the guide reached 3 million views! I could never imagine that this guide I created in the middle of the night 1,5 yeah ago would reach so hight! Thank you all for that :)

28/05/12
Working on a new build as we speak, will publish it as soon as its ready.

24/03/12
I think about merging Phalanx Hoplite with Son of Hades guide.
If someone has an opinion about it it would be nice saying it in the comments.

19/03/12
Riot is dumb, period. Seing the last Patch preview I understnd how stupid these guys are. All the time they release changed without proper testing, otherwise they would have known what would get affected when you change the game.
Don't want to get into details, because they are sad. Lets hope for the best for now.

13/03/12
Wow, we reached two milion views!
To be honest, I never expected my guide to climb that high when I first created it when I officially joined the mobafire community 1,5 year ago.
I still remember how different things where back then. The game has changed drastically since then, and the site itself has improved greatly.
Its really a triumph for the mobafire community and its active members. Congratulation guys.

11/03/12
Changed some small parts of the guide.
Added Masteries and Rune section
Change appearence on the Pros/Cons chapter
Working intensively on the old playstyle chapters.

08/03/12
Added The Destroyer build.

07/03/12
Added Possible builds chapter - deleted old item explanation chapters.
Added the newest build I use for AD Pantheon, on of the best build I've thought of so far.
The complete revamp is not finished though. Old gameplay chapters are not updated yet, please be patient :)

15/02/12
Luckily Pantheon dodged the tides of nerf.A lot of characters where not so lucky though.And the op of all times Akali remains.
Luckily the items we use didn't got nerfed as well.
Keep up brutalizing :D.

02/2/12
Kudos to Daxter101 for encouraging me to run a Grammar check to my guide again.
And honestly it had A LOT of typing mistakes.Although syntax and spelling errors might appear again in the future,they should be less compaired to the past.

28/1/12
Improved the 2nd build greatly in every possible way.Managed to make a killer build but keeping its durability to same-even highter standards. Berserker's Greaves where selected to take maximum advantage of our critical strike chance and to apply Frozen Mallet slow more frequently.Enjoy :).The chapters including the previous items have not been changed yet.

20/1/12
Mastery tree changed for all three builds to a much better combination.Although my original idea was to get some lifesteal from the masteries to heal up a lot during with evert autohit using the 100% critical passive to its full effectiveness it proved out that the increased critical strike damage helped a lot more finishing off low health enemies.Somehow small difffrence but every little bit helps.

10/1/12
Changed the 2nd Blooodthirster for a Guardian Angel.Proved to be a much better choice since you have insane damage already.

5/1/12
Happy new year to everyone!.Been out for a while due to some weird sir***stances.

19/11/11
Rewritten some parts of the guide.The whole remake is not finished yet thought!.Please be patient :).

18/11/11
New Masteries:Set.
The last patch left Pantheon uneffected.
Updated the Masteries eplanation in the Dominion chapter.Still want to find time to rewrite the whole guide,its just terrible and it doesnt cover all the aspects on how i play Pantheon at the moment.

16/11/11
Added a Dominion chapter.Hope it helps.
Did a couple of changes at the 1st build.
Removed a chapter showing the final build.I cant even remember why i created it.
Getting ready for the patch release.I'll be back updating the guide as soon as I have some experience with the new Masteries.
Untill then,Gl & Hf.

28/10/11
So many things I want to do so little time.This guide was first made a year ago when i joined mobafire.And i feel i have to change the guide around a lot because it was based on the old build(the 1st one up there),witch I dont use as much as i did in the past.Still thinking if i should remove it or not.
Moved the "Last Updates/Change log and thoughts" to the end making it the last chapter.

13/10/11
I just feel I should clarify this.
Most people who see the 1st build will say:"Just another dumb glasscannon Panthon who just got rated up cuz it looked fancy".And they are right on one part.It is a build with no resistances.It is expensive.It is risky.And its not viable in high elo.
But.
This is the build witch brought me the best results in the past,and it puts a smile on my face every time I use it.
I am just not sure what I should do.
For now i think i should suggest using this build only on normal games.
But i dont want to remove it.Because it still works on normal and...I want to leave it up there for old times sake.I dont even know if people would care reading this.Just want to write this down.
By the way i will work on an Atmogs build for the fans of it(I had one in the past i just want to make it better).And since I see its becoming more and more popular.

09/10/11
Added the build that i am using for Dominion and will add a chapter on how to play Pantheon on this map as well later on.Also had some weard comments today.Still not sure what heppened.

When I Edit my Guide it says "Guide Type:Champion",while when being out of it says Dominion on the right top.Any way to fix this?.Is it a bug or something?.Now i understand why i had those comments earlier on.Sorry for being agressive I just didnt knew this happened.

28/09/11
Wow reached 400k + Views!!!.
Thanks to everyone who commented and upvoted my build,helping me to reach the top!.
Keep up killing with Pantheon!.
By the way i am working in a Dominion build.Soon to be added.

20/09/11
Last patch left Pantheon uneffected witch is not good nor bad either.
Added the "Putting Spear to purpose(Skills/Skill lvlup)" chapter.Again should had done this sooner^^.
Minor changes on 2nd build on Runes,Masteries,Item order for greater resistances early game and more flexibility.Arp ftw!.
Changed the order of some chapters.Not sure if its better now but we will see ;).

14/09/11
Took a look at the patch preview and the whole changes.I have to say only one thing.
F@*** Riot.
So...they faceraped Mordekaiser,nerfed(again)Oriana and buffing the already super overpowered Nidalee(crazy heal,crazy burst,crazy escape mechanisms).
Mordekaiser was my main for a while now.Just like Pantheon.And just like Pantheon he gets f****ked up because of newbs crying Op.While the only thing they needed was a f***ing negatron cloak.
Just like Xin Zhao,who might indeed needed some nerf but those guys ruined him.Like Evelyn witch i havent seen in game since the day she got nerfed.Wonder why?.Because they made her uselesss.
I know this part doesnt fit it in a guide's changelog.But i wanted for this to be seen.Its my personal opinion on Riot nerfing all my favorite champions.Thanks for that...

12/09/11
I would realy like some comments from the people who vote on this guide.Tell me what you think is wrong or didnt worked for you!.Because i see many votes without comments.I am trying to find some new ways of building this champ and any feedack is very much apretiated!.
Thanks :).

31/08/11
Added the Using Pantheon's ultymate(Grand Skyfall) chapter.
Should had done it sooner^^.

14/08/11
After playing with the "new" Pantheon I figured out that acctually the last patch increased greatly the effectiveness of my builds!.Although the range on realy made me wonder what the f*@#k these people on Riot are thinking but thats another story...
Anyway i decided to republish the build after doing the proper changes!.Enjoy killing again with it :).And remember:Its only a game.

04/08/11
Because of my lack of time and the vast changes on the game i decided to archive the build since i dont have time to update it and improve it to the current battle situations.I want to thank all the people who voted and gave critisism to my build and motivated me to become better.Good luck & have fun.

26/07/11
Getting ready for the next patch.I hope they wont ruin Pantheon.Because his ulty is very important.I am not sure if those changes will be good or bad yet.I will try to keep the build updated .And thanks for all those people who readed my guide and liked it :).I am truly greatfull!.

08/06/11
After testing,exhaust+ignite does not work in all games good.For example if the enemies play very diffensively or have hight mobility, this combination will put you to a disadvantage.So ghost=<3.Flash is a very viable option though.Depends on your playstyle :).

11/05/11
Minor change in purchase order in 3rd build,improving early game damage burst.
Strugling with editing(finaly!).Because its lame reading endless lines:P

07/05/11
-Again placing Dorans Blade as starting item in the first build(was removed after the raised cost to 475) instead of Long sword.After endless testing proved to be wayyy better for pantheon's early game performance.
-Changed the item order a bit on 1st build imroving the early game damage of the build and its overall effectiveness.God i love this build :) !!!
-Thinking on replacing Ghost with ignite in the first build because your MS is more than average with the item purchases and it also allows you to pick up much more kills on early game by using it.

After the last nerf on heartseeker strike and Aegis of zeonia the w-e-q combo is much less powerfull and i tested a new playstyle witch is much more effective atm.I suggest the second build for the time being but i'll leave inside the first one as well because it still is functioning.

The third build is for ranked and premade games when damage is not the most important thing,but having balanced stats as well as good survive ability is.Your damage will still be outrageous because of the Atmas+Last wisper and its ArP.Be aware its not using lifesteal;.Although the build is not carved in stone.You can change some stuff if they work better for you :)

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